


Scent is the Most Evocative Sense

by brightbetween



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 20:55:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6300082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightbetween/pseuds/brightbetween
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Kara runs out on him in "Scar", Lee goes looking for her.  Spoilers up to "Scar" and the flashback scenes in "Daybreak".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scent is the Most Evocative Sense

**Author's Note:**

> My second little fic, not just in this fandom, but my second fic ever. There are many stories about Lee going after Kara after their aborted intimacy, so I'm not really breaking new ground here, but hope you enjoy. It's been a while since I've watched "Scar", so please forgive any inaccuracies.

After slapping Lee, kissing him, and running out on him, Kara holed up in the pilots' ready room with a bottle of the Chief's brew, watching the viper cam footage of BB's death over and over, when Lee found her an hour later, slumped and barely conscious against the wall.

"What are you doing, Kara?" Lee asked, sounding gently reproachful.

It took Kara a moment to look away from the screen and blearily focus on his face. "Lee?" she slurred sleepily.

"Come on, Kara, let me help you back to your rack." Lee went over to the projector and turned it off, casting the room into near-darkness. He walked over in front of Kara and crouched before her. "Come on, on your feet, let's go."

"No, Lee, I don't want to do this anymore." She was staring at the floor, whispering so softly he had to strain to hear her.

Was she talking about him? Them? The "no us" that they were? "Don't want to do what anymore?"

"THIS! Any of it! All of it!" She flung her arms out wide, encompassing the room, Galactica, maybe the whole universe.

Oh. "What do you want to do?"

She looked up at him and he had never seen such desolation in his life. "I want to go home." Her voice was so small and broken that his breath caught and he felt tears well in his eyes.

He sat down next to her against the wall and removed the bottle from her hand, placing it on the floor at his other side. "Yeah," he sighed. "Yeah."

They sat in silence for a while, lost in their thoughts, Kara dozing on and off.

Eventually, she woke up a little and looked over at him tentatively. "You...you remember...the night we met?" 

Lee glanced at her sharply. _The night we met? She must be really gone_. He swallowed and leaned his head back against the wall. "Yeah, I remember."

"I felt so guilty after you left, like so sick with it I couldn't stand it. I couldn't look at Zak on the sofa, couldn't look at the table. I felt like crawling out of my skin because I hated myself so much for what we almost..." She hesitated, "...and it was even worse because even though I felt so bad, I still wanted..." She stopped again and he looked over at her. Her face was turned away from him but he could see enough of her cheek to tell she was flushed, even in the low light. He didn't want to move or even breathe, afraid of breaking whatever spell had compelled her to talk about that night. The night they never talked about. The night they pretended never happened.

"Anyway, I had to get out of there. I went for a run and just kept running around and around the neighborhood. I didn't come back until almost sunrise, and only then because I didn't want Zak to wake up and find out I'd left."

He couldn't stand it anymore. "Why are you telling me this now, Kara?"

She looked directly at him for the first time that night, straight into his eyes. "Because, as frakked-up as that night ended up being, I'd give anything to have it back. That was home, Lee."

He looked back into her eyes for a minute, mutual understanding passing between them, and then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and drew her closer against him. She curled inwards, towards him, and lay her head on his shoulder, pressing her face into his neck.  
He pressed his into her hair.  
They breathed each other in.  
Home.


End file.
